Al Mezan Condemns IOF's Unlawful Attacks on Gaza; Calls International Community to Aid the Civilian Population, Death Rises to 1,927; 85.6% Civilians; 440 Children and 243 Women

Reference: 81/2014 Date: 8 August 2014 1:30PM Gaza Time The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continued to direct armed attacks on civilians and civilian objects in the Gaza Strip; launching attacks on homes and mosques and other objects.
The number of Palestinian civilian casualties have increased as a result.
This update covers the period between 2 pm on 9 August and 1:30 pm today, 10 August 2014.
It is based on information collected and verified by Al Mezan Center for Human Rights during this period.
During this period, more people died from new IOF attacks or due to injuries they had sustained in previous IOF attacks.
The humanitarian conditions in the Gaza Strip remained seriously low, with wide-scaled destruction and hundreds of thousands taking shelter in homes and/or homes under serious shortages in power and water.
The shortages in power and water supplies continue affect health and food preservation.
As of 1:30 pm today, Sunday 10 August 2014, Al Mezan was able to verify that at least 1,927 Palestinians have been killed by the IOF since 7 July 2014.
Of them 440 are children and 243[1] women.
According to Al Mezan's initial investigations 1,651 (i.
e.
85.
6%) of the victims are civilians.
At least 918; including 296 children and 198 women, were killed inside their houses; and two other disabled women were killed in an attack on a rehabilitation NGO's office.
Another 214 people were killed in the vicinity of their houses; including in situations where they were trying to flee from their homes as a result of IOF attacks.
The number of these victims is expected to increase once the casualties in Rafah are further investigated and verified.
Moreover, at least 7و521 other people were injured during the same period; of whom at least 2,078 were children and 1,418 women.
At least, 8,820 houses were destroyed or damaged during this period; of which 2,545 were destroyed completely as the IOF directly and deliberately attacked 897 of the total number of damaged houses.
As of today, IOF attacks have destroyed or damaged 92 schools, 137 mosques, 8 hospitals; 6 of which are out of service, 38 NGO offices, 50 fishing boats, and 161 vehicles.
North Gaza district: Around since 2:00 pm on Saturday, 9 August 2014, IOF artillery batteries located beyond the separation fence in the north of the Gaza Strip started intermittent shelling residential areas east of Jabalia.
One shell landed near the house of Jom'a Abu Hasheesh.
Six persons were injured as a result, including two children and two women.
Israeli warplanes launched several missiles targeting residential houses staring on Saturday night and through the morning hours of Sunday, 10 August 2014.
The house of Jalal Abu Odeh, two others that belong to the Nashwan and Abu Odeh families in Beit Hanoun, and the house of Istishhad Al Eila in Jabalia refugee camp were attacked.
Israeli drones also fired two missiles at one of the apartment buildings in the Al Sheikh Zayid town and caused severe damages to it.
Eight adjacent buildings were partially damaged.
IOF attacked several open areas with at least eight missiles in the North Gaza district.
At least 32 people were injured in these strikes, including seven women and 12 children.
Gaza City: At approximately 2:00 pm, on Saturday 9 August 2014, medical sources at the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City announced the death of a child, Othman Al Jammal, 11, after his body was recovered from under the rubble of his family's destroyed house in the Al Shejai'ya neighborhood, east of Gaza City.
Israeli warplanes had bombarded the house on 20 July 2014.
IOF bombarded two houses and completely destroyed them un Gaza City.
One of them belonged to Mohammed Al Hawajri, located next to Al Sheikh Radwan cemetery, and the other belonged to Jamal Ammar in the neighborhood of Al Zeitoun, southeast of Gaza City.
At around 12:15 am on Sunday 9 August 2014,IOF naval ships fired several shells at Gaza's seaport.
Middle Gaza district: On Saturday, 9 August 2014, one elderly woman Zeina Zaqout, 77, died after she succumbed to her injuries which she sustained when Israeli warplanes attacked her house in Al Nusseirat refugee camp at around 10:40 on Thursday, 31 July 2014.
At around 1:20 am, on Saturday 9 August 2014, an IOF drone fired a missile at a motorcycle driven by Mahmoud Al Jourani, 32, on the Yaffa Street in Deir El Balah town.
Mahmoud was killed in the attack, and two others were injured.
At approximately 2:30 am, on Sunday, 10 August 2014, an IOF drone fired a missile at the Al Shuhadaa Mosque in Al Nusseirat refugee camp.
About ten minutes later, the mosque was completely destroyed as Israeli jets fired two heavy missiles on it.
Three residents of neighboring houses were injured, including one child.
Residents told Al Mezan they received calls from the IOF warning them to evacuate their houses prior to the attack on the mosque.
At approximately 10:20 am on Sunday, 10 August 2014, an Israeli drone fired a missile which landed on a road in Al Masha'leh area in Deir El Balah town.
A child, Ahmad Al Masri, 14, was killed in the attack as he was passing by.
Khan Younis district: Israeli warplanes launched nine airstrikes targeting open areas and houses in Khan Younis district since 2 pm yesterday.
One woman was killed and seven people were injured due to these attacks.
Three houses were targeted, one of which was completely destroyed and five adjacent houses were damaged.
At approximately 5:30 pm, on Saturday, 9 August 2014, Israeli warplanes fired a missile at a flat in the house of Mousa Al Qedra, located in the Al Amal neighborhood, west of Khan Younis.
Five people were injured.
At approximately 4:30 am, on Sunday, 10 August 2014, Israel warplanes bombarded the house of Salman Baraka in Bani Suheila town, east to Khan Younis.
One woman, Amani Baraka, 35, was killed in the attack.
Her husband, Ayman Baraka, 38, was critically injured.
Israeli warplanes also destroyed a house which belonged to Fayez Ma'rouf, south of Khan Younis, with no injuries reported in the attack on this house.
Rafah district: At approximately 7:45 pm, on Saturday 9 August 2014, Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car killing its driver, Saeed Temraz, 26, and another man, Mohammed Adel Temraz, 28, in the Al Brazil neighborhood in Rafah town.
At approximately 10:50 pm, on Saturday 9 August 2014, an Israeli drone fired a missile targeting the house of Anwar Al Sha'ir.
His daughter, Aya Al Sha'ir, 13, was killed in the attack.
The house is located in the Al Jneena neighborhood in eastern Rafah.
The house was destroyed, displacing the four families of 14 members who lived in it.
The IOF continued to bombard open areas and orchards as well as houses in Rafah.
The house of Khaled Al Jaabari was bombed in the Tal Al Shultan neighborhood, west of Rafah.
Two other houses for Salman Dheir and Hassan Al Nahhal were destroyed in IOF attacks.
Al Mezan condemns IOF's attacks on civilians and civilian targets in the Gaza Strip since the start of the on-going military operation.
Attacks on protected civilians and civilian objects that fail to comply with the rules of international humanitarian law (IHL) represent grave breaches of IHL, which amount to war crimes.
These violations must be credibly and promptly investigated and prosecuted.
Al Mezan also condemns Israel's insistence on maintaining the eight-year-old unlawful closure and blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and outside of the Gaza Strip must be removed immediately.
Al Mezan deplores the failure of international community to take any effective, timely action to ensure protection for the civilian population and the civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, which have been devastated due to thousands of IOF unlawful military attacks that did not respect the basic principles of IHL.
International community must back credible investigations overseen by the UN Human Rights Council into the suspected war crimes and must ensure Israel's cooperation with these investigations.
More urgently, and as IOF attacks have resumed since yesterday, international community must make it firmly clear that such actions and violations must not be repeated.
Al Mezan further calls on international community to urgently provide the civilian population in the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid and ensure free and timely passage of materials and personnel needed to re-establish the basic needs for human life; including power, water, sanitation and the health sector.
Care must be provided urgently for the displaced population and support to the vulnerable groups without any delay.
END
[1] Al Mezan would like to apologize for a mistake in calculating the number of women casualties in yesterday's press release (number 79, dated 9 August 2014).
We mistakenly stated that their number was 250 as of 2 pm yesterday.
This was eight women more the correct number, which has been corrected today.